Sunday, August 9, 1998 Last modified at 1:31 a.m. on Sunday, August 9, 1998

Congo readies for war as Kabila attends peace talks

KINSHASA, Congo (AP) - With its president at a peace summit, Congo was on a war footing Saturday - broadcasting accusations against neighboring Rwanda, enlisting fresh army recruits and detaining ethnic Tutsis on suspicion of treason.

Hundreds of unemployed men and women turned out at a Kinshasa military base to enlist in the army, vowing to crush the rebellion in eastern Congo and take the war to Rwanda.

"We're determined to protect our country," said one young woman who refused to give her name. "If they give us arms today, we are ready to go all the way to Rwanda."

President Laurent Kabila accuses the Tutsi-led Rwandan government of masterminding the uprising in the Kivu region. Several key cities, including Goma and Bukavu, are already in the hands of rebel Tutsis.

Rwanda repeatedly has denied it was behind Congo's uprising and said Kabila was trying to divert attention from disenchantment with his government.

Kabila sat down Saturday in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, with his Rwandan adversary, President Pasteur Bizimungu, to try to find a peaceful end to growing hostilities. They were joined by five other regional leaders.

But prospects for a solution emerging from the talks appeared dim.

On his return to the Rwandan capital Kigali, Bizimungu accused Kabila of trying to establish a pretext to attack Rwanda and threatened Congo with a preemptive strike.

"We will not wait for Congo to attack first," Bizimungu told The Associated Press.

The government has been repeatedly broadcasting statements by Kabila declaring there was no room to bargain with Rwanda.

"There is nothing to negotiate in Zimbabwe except the immediate withdrawal of Rwandan troops," Kabila was quoted as saying on state radio.

The rebellious Rwandan soldiers and Congolese Tutsi fighters - called Banyamulenge - backed Kabila last year in his ouster of dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, but they have since grown disaffected. Among other things, the fighters accuse Kabila of failing to contain Rwandan Hutu rebels launching cross-border attacks from inside Congo.

The Banyamulenge have close ethnic ties with the Tutsis, who now govern Rwanda.

"They want to create a Tutsi empire," Kabila said in another statement on state-controlled Voice of the People radio. "But are we Congolese prepared to accept the challenge of a toad which wants to swallow an elephant?"

The rebel Tutsi fighters also appeared to ignore diplomatic efforts to end the conflict and vowed to push toward the capital of Kinshasa.

The rebels announced a new set of targets in western Congo, pledging to push inland from their Atlantic coastline stronghold of Muanda to Boma, within 150 miles southwest of the capital.

"We want to remove President Kabila from power for the interest of the people because he failed to rule them," rebel-run Radio Bukavu said.

With sabers rattling, several European countries and the United States have ordered their non-essential embassy employees out of Congo. The United States has urged all Americans to leave the country.

Kabila was served a warning by Rwanda on Friday, when Bizimungu declared that his country will "hit back" if Congo strikes.

With the hostilities mounting, ethnic Tutsis in Kinshasa are facing reprisal attacks for the rebellion.

Hundreds, perhaps thousands of Tutsis and other citizens have been rounded up by the police, while troops loyal to Kabila looted their shops, the U.N. human rights agency said.

One foreigner in Congo who had been arrested and later released said dozens of Tutsis, Ethiopians and Lebanese were being held at one police station on suspicion of treason.

In Washington, the State Department expressed similar concerns.

Spokesman James Foley said the reports from Congo suggest that Tutsis and possibly civilians of other ethnicities in Kinshasa "are being rounded up, detained, beaten, tortured and killed because of their ethnicity."

The revenge attacks on Tutsis reflect a growing instability in Kinshasa and elsewhere in Congo amid displeasure with Kabila's rule, which critics say is marked by corruption and mismanagement.